Antarctic ice sheet is shrinking....
I don't know what this all means, but the new measurements are contrary to what was being predicted by global warming.
The Antarctic ice sheet, which holds 70 per cent of the world's fresh water, is shrinking at a rate of 36 cubic miles a year, according to a study carried out by satellites.
Previously it was thought that the 6,500ft-thick blanket of ice covering 98 per cent of Antarctica - a continent twice the size of Australia - was gaining more mass than it was losing.
This was predicted to happen as precipitation increased in a warming climate. But now sophisticated new measurements made by two satellites have shown that the ice sheet is melting.
posted by GayandRight @ 10:33 PM
1 Comments:
The study in question took place over a relatively short time period - about 3 years.
Longer term studies indicate an overall increase in the mass of the Antarctic Ice Surface. The larger East surface is actually increasing while the smaller West surface is decreasing.
See this article at TCSDaily which comments on recent reports that the ice surface is shrinking,
Natural variability is sufficiently large on yearly and multidecadal time scales that it is simply impossible to conclude that anything other than natural variability is at play in either of these two stories...
There is nothing inherently noteworthy about the results of this three year study of Antarctic ice trends. This is not to disparage the scientific work of Velicogna and Wahl. It is to suggest that their paper serves more as a initial investigation into some of the applications of observations of gravitational variations, rather than bearing any relevance to the issue of global climate change and its implications.
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